Melanie Sanford


Melanie Sarah Sanford is an American chemist, currently the Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. She is a Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. She has served as an executive editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society since 2021, having been an associate editor of the since 2014.

Life

Sanford was born and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. She attended Classical High School. She graduated from Yale University with a BS and MS in chemistry in 1996, having carried out research with Robert H. Crabtree, while competing for the Yale Gymnastics NCAA team. She graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in 2001, where she studied Chemistry with Robert H. Grubbs. She did postdoctoral work at Princeton University with John T. Groves.
Sanford began her academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan in 2003. She was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2007 and full professor in 2013.

Research

Sanford is known for her studies of high-valent organopalladium species, particularly those implicated in Pd-catalyzed C–H functionalization reactions. Her group has also developed new methods to access fluorinated and radiofluorinated materials for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and radiology. In a collaboration with Matthew Sigman at the University of Utah, her group has designed new compounds for use in redox flow batteries.

Awards and honors

Sanford has received numerous awards and honors including but not limited to:

Recent publications

  1. Ferguson, D. M.; Bour, J. R.; Canty, A. J.; Kampf, J. W.; Sanford, M. S. "Aryl–CF3 Coupling from Phosphinoferrocene-Ligated Palladium Complexes," Organometallics 2019, ASAP Article.
  2. Lee, S. J.; Makaravage, K. J.; Brooks, A. F.; Scott, P. J. H.; Sanford, M. S. "Cu‐Mediated Aminoquinoline‐Directed Radiofluorination of Aromatic C–H Bonds with K18F," Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, ASAP Article.
  3. Yang, L.; Brooks, A. F.; Makaravage, K. J.; Zhang, H.; Sanford, M. S.; Scott, P. J. H.; Shao, X. "Radiosynthesis of LY2795050 for Preclinical and Clinical PET Imaging Using Cu-Mediated Cyanation," ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2018, 9, 1274–1279.
  4. Malapit, C. A.; Bour, J. R.; Brigham, C. E.; Sanford, M. S. "Base-free nickel-catalysed decarbonylative Suzuki–Miyaura coupling of acid fluorides," Nature 2018, 563, 100–104.
  5. Aguilera, E. Y.; Sanford, M. S. "Model Complexes for the Palladium-Catalyzed Transannular C–H Functionalization of Alicyclic Amines," Organometallics 2018, 1, 138–142.
  6. Mantell, M.; Kampf, J. W.; Sanford, M. S. "Improved Synthesis of 2 Complexes," Organometallics 2018, 37, 3240–3242.
  7. Schimler, S. D.; Froese, R. D. J.; Bland, D. C.; Sanford, M. S. "Reactions of Arylsulfonate Electrophiles with NMe4F: Mechanistic Insight, Reactivity, and Scope," J. Org. Chem. 2018 83, 11178–11190.
  8. Cabrera, P. J.; Lee, M.; Sanford, M. S. "Second-Generation Palladium Catalyst System for Transannular C–H Functionalization of Azabicycloalkanes," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 5599–5606.
  9. Makaravage, K. J.; Shao, X.; Brooks, A. F.; Yang, L.; Sanford, M. S.; Scott, P. J. H. "Copper-Mediated Cyanation of Arylboronic Acids and Arylstannanes," Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 1530–1533.
  10. Hendricks, K. H.; Robinson, S. G.; Braten, M. N.; Sevov, C. S.; Helms, B. A.; Sigman, M. S.; Minteer, S. D.; Sanford, M. S. "High-Performance Oligomeric Catholytes for Effective Macromolecular Separation in Nonaqueous Redox Flow Batteries," ACS Cent. Sci. 2018, 4, 189–196.
  11. James, B. R.; Boissonnault, J. A.; Wong-Foy, A. G.; Matzger, A. J.; Sanford, M. S. "Structure activity relationships in metal–organic framework catalysts for the continuous flow synthesis of propylene carbonate from CO2 and propylene oxide," RSC Adv. 2018, 8, 2132–2137.
  12. Topczewski, J. T.; Cabrera, P. J.; Saper, N. I.; Sanford, M. S. "Palladium-Catalysed Transannular C–H Functionalization of Alicyclic Amines," Nature 2016, 531, 220–224.
  13. Cook, A. K.; Schimler, S. D.; Matzger, A. J.; Sanford, M. S. "Catalyst-Controlled Selectivity in the C–H Borylation of Methane and Ethane," Science 2016, 351, 1421–1424.
  14. Camasso, N. M.; Sanford, M. S. "Design, Synthesis, and Carbon-Heteroatom Coupling Reactions of Organometallic Nickel Complexes," Science 2015, 347, 1218–1220.
  15. Hickman, A. J.; Sanford, M. S. "High-Valent Organometallic Copper and Palladium in Catalysis," Nature 2012, 484, 177–185.